


notes and observations about the man of steel

by anthropologicalhands



Category: Man of Steel (2013), Superman - All Media Types
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Gen, Office banter, Post-Movie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-26
Updated: 2013-09-26
Packaged: 2017-12-27 17:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/981601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anthropologicalhands/pseuds/anthropologicalhands
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lois observes her new coworker observing her and ponders this secret identity business.</p>
            </blockquote>





	notes and observations about the man of steel

Lois Lane, to the horror of many, is _fantastic_ with secrets. She draws them out and splashes them across the front page of the Daily Planet like no other journalist the newspaper has ever had before. And if Perry despairs of her spelling, he can never contest her concrete facts and thorough leads.

Keeping secrets, she is also turning out to be surprisingly adept. When it was a matter of concealing Clark’s identity while he decided what to do with himself—that was easy. She has never liked sensationalism, especially not in the wake of good investigation, and she was never out to expose him in the first place. 

Now, that was no longer so necessary. Now, she had kissed him in an adrenaline-filled rush, been on a spaceship and talked to his _father_ (or an imprint of his father’s consciousness if one wanted to be specific). In the span of a few days they were already far more intimate than she managed with her previous boyfriend, who lasted for six months before he got himself transferred to Transylvania. 

And now, speaking of intimate—

Clark Kent is sitting across from her in a sports jacket which slims him down, with tousled hair and thick framed glasses. His smile is so sweet and shy he has at least half the office (of all genders) sneaking glances at him. 

Not bad for the new guy.

However, in the process of all the surreptitious ogling that’s going on, no one misses his little peeks at _her_. 

“If you want a picture, just ask Jenny,” she says without looking up from her notes.

“Oh! Sorry,” bumbles Clark, and she can hear him lowering his head bashfully. She looks up to flash a smile at him.

“Not a problem. I know I’m one-of-a-kind, especially from wherever you come from…”

“Smallville,” he supplies, grinning.

It’s nice to see that he isn’t taking this whole disguise thing too seriously with her.

But that smile. She’ll have to tell him to tone it down later.

Clark Kent is so obviously Superman, how does no one else see it?

“Smallville, huh? Cute. Well, Smallville—“ 

Both his eyebrows go up at the nickname. Well, there has to be some pretense that they haven’t interacted before. Slipping up and calling him ‘Clark’ too familiarly would be _disastrous_. 

Lois grins, and continues:

“I hope you are up to speed with the big city life. Most of the girls here would like nothing better than to get their claws into a strapping farm boy like yourself, especially when you’re all dressed up.”

“Would you include yourself among them, Miss Lane?”

There is a collective intake of breath from those near enough to hear them. The line may suffer from a slight stumble in delivery, a wavering uncertainty, but newsflash: Clark Kent has guts enough to go toe to toe with Lois Lane.

Star reporter in the making: do not underestimate.

She doesn’t even blush, though it’s a near thing. 

“Just a warning,” she tosses her notes onto his desk. She gave him her address already, and unless he is really that shy, she will be seeing him later tonight anyways. “Read up. LexCorp might be dumping waste from his R&D department into the sewers and we need to make sure we can get the right kind of suits to go check it out.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he quips.

“’Lois’ is just fine.”

He nods, and bends over her notes to read them, one hand coming up to adjust his glasses.

Lois allows herself a final onceover look before returning to her work. Would she see it, if she didn’t already know? He can hardly change that bone structure, or the fact that standing up, he will be among the tallest men in the room.

If she was looking, Lois decides. If she understood just how _human_ Superman really was, she would see him across from her.

Gently, she nudges Clark’s shin with a bare foot (her heels were pinching today), and watches him jump nearly a foot in the air.

(So what if she’s breaking her own rules? The only one who can actually see through the desk is the very one she’s teasing in the first place.)

“Sorry,” she says, and grins.


End file.
